More efforts should be made to attract women to the Bermuda Regiment, according to Governor Sir Richard Gozney.

Giving his "strong endorsement" to a call from the UK to step up voluntary recruitment, Sir Richard told The Royal Gazette: "Like many people in Bermuda I would like to see more of a balance between volunteers and conscripts.

"This has proved elusive in the past, but its elusiveness should not stop us from pursuing the idea, including an attempt to interest more young women in joining the Regiment in time for the 2010 Recruit Camp."

The Governor was responding to a statement from UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said the UK Government encouraged the recruitment of volunteers for the Bermuda Regiment.

However, Bermudians Against the Draft (BAD) campaigners argued pushing for more female volunteers would be a waste of time while conscription can be relied upon to make up the numbers.

"Who's going to be stupid enough to go up there?" said BAD founder Larry Marshall, who complained about low pay, poor treatment and shoddy equipment. BAD also reacted angrily to Mr. Miliband's statement, which it viewed as a rejection of the Foreign Affairs Committee's recent anti-conscription recommendation.

Following a visit to Bermuda early last year, at which British MPs met BAD representatives, the Foreign Affairs Committee concluded in its report: "We recommend that the UK Government should encourage the Bermuda Government to move away from conscription and towards the Bermuda Regiment becoming a more professional organisation, with voluntary and paid elements."

Mr. Miliband responded: "The responsibility for the Bermuda Regiment was delegated to the Government of Bermuda in 1989 and its recruitment policy is therefore a matter for the elected Ministers of Bermuda.

"However, the Government agrees that more of a balance between volunteers and conscripts would be beneficial to the Bermuda Regiment.

"It would encourage the recruitment of volunteers, while taking into account the difficulties posed by a territory with full employment."

Mr. Marshall said yesterday: "They sent representatives to Bermuda to hear both sides of the issue and then made their recommendations to the relevant parties. Three MPs went back and convinced their committee that conscription should be abolished.

"They have blatantly disregarded that advice from their own representatives. It was an exercise in futility.

"They send these representatives out and they want them to come back and tell them what they want to hear. If they say something different, they disregard the opinion.

"That's totalitarian. It's imperialist arrogance. It boggles my mind as to why they do that."

Regarding Sir Richard's comments, Mr. Marshall said: "I say many Bermudians want to see the same balance between conscripts and volunteers in our country as in Britain – i.e. 100 percent volunteers, 0 percent conscripts."

The lack of women in the Regiment was a focal point of last year's court battle in which BAD tried in vain to get conscription outlawed.

BAD argued men were being discriminated against because they could be conscripted but women could not.

In the past 44 years, 137 women have served as volunteers, with Court of Appeal judge Sir Austin Ward saying in his judgment last November: "That figure does not suggest that there is a large body of women anxiously waiting to serve in the Regiment."

Recruit Camp 2009 gets underway on Sunday morning, with 170 new recruits, although the Regiment did not respond when asked how many of them would be women. Home Affairs Minister David Burch did not respond to requests for comment over the past two days.

What do you think? Email us news@royalgazette.bm